Farida

I know a Farida and she is Swedish looking. Its a lovely name and hadnt realised it was a Muslim name ( surely not Muslim only )

Also, my instinctive thoughts about "cultural appropriation" in the context of this thread are that it all sounds a bit, you stick with your sort and we'll stick wth ours, everyone where they should be. I don't get it. Names can cross cultures. It's not offensive to name a child a beautiful name from a different culture than your own, like it is offensive to dress up as a Native American or blackface for Halloween (which is where I usually see cultural appropriation being discussed). And I say this as a person that is part of 3 distinct cultures.

The Persians I know called Farideh are all FA-rideh yes, and are from Tehran. May be pronounced differently in different regions?

Not always. And there’s the speeding up too!

I’m a bit of a Faraday fan so it would work for me!

I have a Frida and work in lots of Arabic speaking countries. Whenever I tell anyone her name they say 'oh well then, she has an Arabic name! Farida!' So there you go.

@yosoyapplecider

I 100% believe you. I simply had a very different association / made different assumptions.

The Persian/Iranian spelling would be Farideh, emphasis on first syllable.

@freddieclaryhorshielion
it's a very popular name amongst south Asian Muslims as well as Arab Muslims, being from the UK originally, every Aliyah I know is a Muslim and there's some who are well over 50 years of age so it's been popular for a very long time.

Frieda and Frayda / Fraida (Joy in Yiddish) are similar as well.

Freya is similar?

@yosoyapplecider

I honestly didn’t know that this was a common/popular Arab/Muslin name...?

I know a Christian (her parents are very Christian, evangelical parents) girl named Aliyah but I assumed that this was... well, a political statement about Jewish immigration to Israel, tbh.

Huh, interesting :)

I think Farida ( pronounced Fareeda ) sounds lovely, and works across cultures. I do know a Farida, and at school her name was always slang-shortened to Freeda by other children.
I would not be surprised and nosy if I met a blonde Farida. Use it if you love it ❤️

I know a lot of white Christian or atheist Aleeahs or however you spell it whereas in the past I only knew of Muslim girls called Aliyah/Aleeah

I know some redneck girls called Aleeyah or Alia which is actually an Arabic name and neither of them knew this there parents just liked the name.

It makes me think of flour (farina). This is probably not a problem.

It is an Arabic name pronounced as Fareeda, but it isn't a Muslim name. Many Arab Christians use it too, so no issue whatsoever with appropriation. I know more blonde haired Layla's than I do Arab ones, although it is an Arab name.

I think stick with the correct pronunciation otherwise you are effectively in danger of changing the meaning of the name (not that I can think of anything off hand). Besides if pronounced incorrectly she will have a life time of people correcting her. Think Max saying my name is Mehx.

I don’t have a problem with non muslims having a muslim name anymore than I’d have with an asian person having an English name. People have names for lots of different reasons.

If I was to choose a name from a culture or country I wasn’t familiar with I’d get a native speaker to suss it out in case of unpleasant connotations. Hmmmm Adolph or Gengis sound like nice names...

I have relatives who have 1) have family nicknames which are ‘Farty’ and ‘fatty’ in English (bit not meaning those words) and 2) be whose proper first name pronunciation is a horrible racist term, so her name is now always mispronounced on purpose since she moved to an English speaking country.

So, idk.

I’m not saying that the OP should of shouldn’t use it. And I’m not against people using names that are from ‘outside’ their culture. Especially not if there’s a connection.

But I’ve never really thought about this (up to now), to be very honest.

I think that the argument about people with an Asian or Arab background using traditionally ‘English’ names is difficult in this instance.

Because these children are brought up in a country where names like Emily and James are very common. This argument would be very convincing if the OP did indeed live in an Arab country, imo.

It is true that names have crossed barriers (linguistic, cultural etc...)
Like the biblical names.
But biblical names have become part of our culture... and were originally used because people had a strong connection to the bible (I guess?). I’m not sure if the OP has a strong connection...
Also, our ‘bibilical names’ have been anglicised.
would I be surprised if I met English Christians named Judith, Gabriel, Hannah and Susan? No. But if I met a Yehudit, Gavriel, Channah and Shoshannah? Kind of.

Love it also easy to pronounce as phonetic

Wolfie - a name is pronounced/spelled the way the family intends it.

No. When you are using a name from a culture that isn't your own, it's crucial to research the proper pronunciation.

Otherwise you look like an ignorant gobshite who saw a pretty combination of letters and then decided to slap their own pronunciation onto it and assume they are are right. You need to listen to the native speakers of a language, they will be aware of the correct pronunciation and will (or should) judge you for not even making the effort to pronounce it properly.